Welcome to the new Steering Committee members!

The Coalition for Human Rights in Development has completed its first open election process to appoint the ten members of our Steering Committee, who will take office in April. The secretariat and outgoing Steering Committee are thrilled with our new Steering Committee and we look forward to their guidance, support and insights in the coming years. 

Please join us in sharing our heartfelt gratitude to all outgoing Steering Committee members, including several who have been stewarding the Coalition since its inception. Over the years, the Coalition’s Steering Committee has fostered collective spaces and stewarded us into a relational sanctuary where members and partners come together to advance collective work. We stand on their shoulders as we look ahead to the new Steering Committee who will also be supervising the Coalition’s strategy planning process.

We would also like to thank all the Coalition’s members who participated in the election process, both as candidates and by casting their votes.

Sukhgerel Dugersuren

Sukhgerel Dugersuren is a Mongolian woman human rights defender who works closely with communities impacted by large scale development projects. She has a long history of exposing human rights abuses and environmental degradation linked to large scale mining, energy and infrastructure projects. She is the Chair of Oyu Tolgoi Watch (OT Watch) – a Mongolian NGO monitoring the environmental and human rights impacts of Rio Tinto’s gold and copper mine Oyu Tolgoi – and Director of the Rivers without Boundaries Coalition in Mongolia which helps local communities to protect river ecosystems they depend on.

Prabindra Shakya

Prabindra Shakya is a human rights activist, belonging to the indigenous Newar community. He is the founder and director of the Community Empowerment & Social Justice Network in Nepal and Convenor of the Asia Indigenous Peoples Network on Extractive Industries and Energy. For over a decade, he has been engaged in promoting and protecting the rights of indigenous peoples and marginalized communities. He has extensive working experience at regional and international levels (including with the Secretariat of UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues and the Asia Indigenous Peoples Pact). He previously served on the Steering Committee and the Secretariat of the Coalition.

Kazi Zaved Khalid Pasha Joy

Joy is the Coordinator of Initiative for Rights View, a non-profit organization established in 2008 that focuses on economic justice, climate change, and human rights among other issues. Previously, he worked in different roles (from researcher to field officer) for Coastal Development Partnership (CDP). He was an International Committee member of NGO Forum on ADB and coordinator of the National Network Democratic Budget Movement. Joy has been working in the development sector for the past 16 years and he has conducted research on natural resource management, disaster aid, community-based and participatory development projects, and the impacts of projects funded by development banks.

Paulina Garzón

Paulina, a native Ecuadorian, has been working on environmental justice and community rights in the Amazon for more than 20 years. She has extensive experience on Chinese finance institutions and she is currently the Director of Latinoamérica Sustentable (LAS). Previously, she was the president of Acción Ecológica, Steering Committee member of the Amazon Coalition, and worked for BIC as the Latin America Program Manager. She is the co-Founder of the Center for Economic and Social Rights in Quito-Ecuador. She was awarded Honorary Membership in the Frente de Defensa de la Amazonía for her advocacy work against Chevron-Texaco.

Gonzalo Roza

Gonzalo Roza is the Program Coordinator for Global Governance at FUNDEPS in Argentina. For the past 15 years, Gonzalo has worked extensively on development finance issues in LAC. He has participated in several civil society working groups (eg: on the IDB and the BRICS) and he is one of the team members of the Early Warning System for the LAC region. From 2016 to 2018, he was part of the Secretariat of the Coalition and has been actively contributing to the Coalition’s work since its inception. Previously, he worked for the Centro de Derechos Humanos y Ambiente. Gonzalo has also authored several papers and articles on topics such as transparency and access to justice.

Amy Ekdawi

Amy Ekdawi has over 25 years of experience working with rights-based Southern and Northern civil society groups. Since 2019, she has been the director of the Arab Watch Coalition. Previously, from 2010 to 2017, she worked in different roles with the Bank Information Centre (BIC). Amy is deeply committed to creatively providing grassroots movements with resources, strategies, and tools to advocate for their own rights at the local, national, and international levels. She has experience in training, fundraising, project management, and has a strong track record in coalition building among civil society groups.

Petra Kjell Wright

Petra Kjell Wright is Campaigns Manager at Recourse. She has previously worked at organisations such as the Bretton Woods Project, Progressio, the New Economics Foundation, and the World Development Movement. For over two decades, Petra has been working on various issues related to international development, with a focus on social and environmental rights and accountability. She has worked with partners in a wide range of countries spanning from Africa, Asia (including Central Asia) and Latin America, including conducting workshops and case study field research. Her academic background includes degrees in political science, development studies and environmental sustainability.

Nina Lesikhina

Nina joined Bankwatch in 2019 as a Community Support Coordinator and she is now a Policy Officer. She has extensive experience in public advocacy campaigning on human rights, energy, climate change, waste, and chemicals management in Russia, the Caucasus and globally. Previously, she worked with Greenpeace and other environmental NGOs, and she holds Master’s degrees in Environmental Science and Environmental Policy. For years, she has been closely working with the Coalition, and in particular on joint fact-finding missions, reports, briefings and advocacy efforts with the Defenders in Development campaign.

What is the Steering Committee?

The Steering Committee acts like the board of the Coalition and provides governance, oversight and accountability. As the highest body of the Coalition, the Steering Committee is responsible for overall strategy and objectives for the Coalition and approves any new areas of work, policy positions and admission of new members. It also provides oversight for hiring for key secretariat positions, fundraising and budgeting. The Steering Committee also has a role in outreach to new members, partners, and allies, as well as representation of agreed Coalition advocacy positions.

You can read the Terms of Reference here and you can find further information about the Coalition, its membership and its history in this page.

The Steering Committee consists of 10 Coalition members.

To ensure equitable geographic distribution, there are following number of seats from each region:

– Africa and Middle East (2);

– Asia (3);

– Europe and Caucasus (2)

– Latin America and the Caribbean (2).

– United States and Canada (1)

To ensure diversity and to reflect the membership composition, the Steering Committee election process also ensured that:

– at least five of the representatives identify as women;

– no more than two international organizations are represented;

– at least two representatives are from Indigenous or traditional communities.

Do you have any questions about the Steering Committee or would you like to know more? Get in touch, write to us at: contact@rightsindevelopment.org.